Summary
The Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit denied a stay and denied supervisory writs in a matter arising from litigation involving Louisiana Health Service & Indemnity Company, Louisiana Dental Association, and the Wightman parties. The court noted that no district court order or judgment was before it for review and discussed the divestiture of trial-court jurisdiction upon the granting of an order of appeal under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 2088(A).
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the court of appeal could review the supervisory-writ application when no district-court order or judgment was before it.
- Whether a stay should be granted in connection with the supervisory-writ application.
- What jurisdiction remains in the district court after an order of appeal is granted.
Holdings
- The court denied the writ because there was no order or judgment of the district court before the court of appeal for review.
- Upon the granting of an order of appeal, jurisdiction over matters reviewable under the appeal is divested from the trial court and attaches in the appellate court; the trial court retains jurisdiction only over matters not reviewable under the appeal.
Key quotations
“the jurisdiction of the trial court over all matters in the case reviewable under the appeal is divested, and that of the appellate court attaches, on the granting of the order of appeal” (at 1)
“Any order or judgment rendered subsequent to the order granting an appeal is null if that order or judgment purports to address a matter, which is at the time reviewable under the appeal.” (at 1)
Factual background
The opinion concerns an application for supervisory writs arising from litigation involving Louisiana Health Service & Indemnity Company, HMO Louisiana, Inc., the Louisiana Dental Association, Inc., and the Wightman applicants. The appellate court had no district-court order or judgment before it for review.
Procedural history
The matter arose in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court for the Parish of East Baton Rouge, docket number 683969. Mark Wightman, D.D.S., Courtney Wightman, D.D.S., and Wightman Family Dental, L.L.C., applied for supervisory writs, but the court of appeal determined that no order or judgment of the district court was properly before it for review. The court denied both the stay and the writ.